Argentina’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (ARN) has granted a new 10-year operating licence for the Atucha-2 nuclear power unit enabling its operation until 2036.
State-owned owner and operator Nucleoeléctrica Argentina said on social network site X that the new licensing period consolidates Atucha-2’s strategic role within the national electricity system.
Atucha-2, about 100 km northwest of Buenos Aires, is a 688-MW pressurised heavy water reactor of the Siemens KWU design that began commercial operation in 2016.
Argentina has three operating commercial power reactors – a Candu unit at the Embalse nuclear station and two Siemens PHWR units at Atucha.
In 2024, the three units produced about 7.4% of Argentina’s electricity, according to International Atomic Energy Agency data.
In October 2025 Nucleoeléctrica said it had completed 44% of the life extension and modernisation works at the older and smaller Atucha-1 unit, which began commercial operation in 1974.
That project aimed at extending the 335-MW unit’s operating lifetime for another 20 years.
In 2015 Argentina began construction of the indigenous 25-MW Carem25 prototype small modular reactor unit on a site next to the two Atucha units. The plant was jointly developed by the National Atomic Energy Commission and state technology company INVAP.
